Military & Aerospace
White House directs open access for government research
February 25, 2013 8:47 am | by Mark Felsenthal, Reuters | News | CommentsThe White House has moved to make the results of federally funded research available to the public for free within a year, bowing to public pressure for unfettered access to scholarly articles and other materials produced at taxpayers' expense."Americans should have easy access to the results of research they help support," John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote on the White House website.
Coaxial Resonator Oscillator features internal proprietary frequency doubler
February 22, 2013 3:23 pm | Crystek Crystal | Product Releases | CommentsCrystek’s new CVCO55CXT-5580-5685 Coaxial Resonator Oscillator (CRO) is a coaxial-based VCO with an internal proprietary frequency doubler. The CVCO55CXT family’s frequency doubling, 2X fundamental technology reaches new performance levels of lower phase noise and much lower harmonics over the competition, while achieving lower current consumption in the process.
India to launch mission to Mars this year, says president
February 22, 2013 12:11 pm | by Reuters | News | Comments(Reuters) - India will launch its first mission to Mars this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday, as the emerging Asian nation looks to play catch up in the global space race alongside the United States, Russia and its giant neighbor China.
"Vulcan" has big lead in bid to name Pluto's newly discovered moons
February 22, 2013 9:03 am | News | Comments"Star Trek" star William Shatner and tens of thousands of the show's fans are leading a charge to name one of Pluto's newly discovered moons after the character Spock's home planet. Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on the Starship Enterprise on the program launched in 1966, proposed the name earlier this month in response to an appeal from scientists for help in choosing the names of two newly discovered Pluto moons.
Inclination sensors provide precise precision control, continuous positioning of rotational movements
February 21, 2013 4:31 pm | Balluff Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsBalluff's new liquid-based inclination sensors measure the deviation on a horizontal axis of up to 360°. With an extremely high accuracy of 0.1°C, a resolution of 0.01° and a temperature drift of just 0.01% /10K, they are the ideal choice for solar -thermal power plant and renewable energy applications that require angle measurement or constant rotary monitori
The micro/nano-satellite revolution
February 21, 2013 9:24 am | Videos | CommentsCraig Underwood of Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, gives his talk titled 'The Micro/Nano-Satellite Revolution'. Recorded at NPL on 19 February 2013.
Searching for the solar system's chemical recipe
February 20, 2013 4:12 pm | by EurekAlert! | News | CommentsBy studying the origins of different isotope ratios among the elements that make up today's smorgasbord of planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and interplanetary ice and dust, Mark Thiemens and his colleagues hope to learn how our solar system evolved.
Kepler spacecraft helps astronomers find tiny planet beyond our solar system
February 20, 2013 4:05 pm | by EurekAlert! | News | CommentsAn international team of astronomers has used nearly three years of high precision data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft to make the first observations of a planet outside our solar system that's smaller than Mercury, the smallest planet orbiting our sun.
Do drone pilots deserve higher medal than combat vets?
February 20, 2013 3:32 pm | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsSince when did waggling a joystick become more valorous than pulling a trigger? It hasn’t, you say? The newly-minted Distinguished Warfare Medal — created to honor cyberwarriors and drone pilots — would rank above the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, and the military community is incensed.
Greater security in the subways
February 20, 2013 8:56 am | by Eurekalert! | News | CommentsTecnalia is participating in the SECUREMETRO project which is aimed at the development and investigation of protective systems for metro vehicles that can enable us to travel with a greater level of safety in the case of a disastrous event.
Russian scientists recover meteor fragments
February 19, 2013 8:42 am | by VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press | News | CommentsScientists have found more than 50 tiny fragments of a meteor that exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains, and preliminary tests are turning up information about its contents. However, local residents seem more interested in the black market value of the fragments. As they search for their own pieces of the meteor, sales offers already are filling the Internet, and police are warning all purchasers to prepare for possible fraud.
Iranian clown car flies ... with the help of Photoshop
February 14, 2013 11:06 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsTake that, free world! For all you naysayers out there who thought Iran’s clown car, er ... stealth fighter ... smelled a bit fishy, the Islamic Republic has the ultimate retort: a badly-Photoshopped image of the Qaher-313 set against stock photo #3.
Pentagon stands by use of lithium-ion batteries on F-35 fighters
February 13, 2013 9:15 am | by Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters | News | CommentsThe Pentagon said it plans to continue using lithium-ion batteries on the new F-35 fighter jet despite problems with similar batteries that have grounded Boeing Co's new 787 airliner and are causing Airbus to rethink their use on its A350 jet. Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's $396 billion F-35 program office...
Contest seeks underworldly names for 2 Pluto moons
February 13, 2013 9:11 am | by MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsWant to name Pluto's two tiniest moons? Then you'll need to dig deep into mythology. Astronomers announced a contest Monday to name the two itty-bitty moons of Pluto discovered over the past two years. Pluto is the Roman equivalent of the Greek's Hades, lord of the underworld, and its three bigger moons have related mythological names: Charon, the ferryman of Hades; Nix for the night goddess; and the multi-headed monster Hydra.
Earth-observing satellite to launch from Calif.
February 8, 2013 4:30 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsNASA is set to launch a new Earth-observing satellite designed to carry on the tradition of documenting changes to the planet's glaciers, forests and coastlines. Mission managers gave the OK earlier this week to proceed with Monday's launch. The Landsat satellite was scheduled to be lifted into orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard an Atlas V rocket.
No hype with storm; experts call it the real thing
February 8, 2013 4:28 pm | by Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press | News | CommentsYou can call it a snowstorm of historic proportions. You can call it the return of New England's blizzard of 1978. You can call it simply dangerous. And you can even call it Nemo. But don't call it hype. The new director of the National Weather Service says some may be getting carried away in describing the winter storm bearing down on the Northeast. But he says the science is simple and chilling.
Coaxial Resonator Oscillator features internal proprietary frequency double
February 8, 2013 3:18 pm | Crystek Crystal | Product Releases | CommentsCrystek’s new CVCO55CXT-5370-5470 Coaxial Resonator Oscillator (CRO) is a coaxial-based VCO with an internal proprietary frequency doubler. The CVCO55CXT family’s frequency doubling, 2X fundamental technology reaches new performance levels of lower phase noise and much lower harmonics over the competition, while achieving lower current consumption in the process.
150-foot asteroid will buzz Earth, no need to duck
February 8, 2013 9:01 am | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Reporter | News | CommentsA 150-foot-wide asteroid will come remarkably close to Earth next week, even closer than high-flying communication and weather satellites. It will be the nearest known flyby for an object of this size. But don't worry. Scientists promise the megarock will be at least 17,100 miles away when it zips past next Friday.
NASA scientists build first-ever wide-field X-ray imager
February 7, 2013 2:10 pm | by EurekAlert! | News | CommentsThree NASA scientists teamed up to develop and demonstrate NASA's first wide-field-of-view soft X-ray camera for studying "charge exchange," a poorly understood phenomenon that occurs when the solar wind collides with Earth's exosphere and neutral gas in interplanetary space.
Engineering Update #3: Watson, Nano Batteries, 3D Chips, and Mission: Impossible Gets Real
February 7, 2013 1:42 pm | Videos | Comments"Watson," no, not Sherlock's sidekick, but the famous supercomputer who beat the world's best human at Jeopardy, is going back to school. IBM is sending the Watson system to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, so it can improve its "thinking" skills. Because making robots more human always works out just fine.
Iranian "stealth fighter" looks like a clown car
February 7, 2013 11:09 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsSo it turns out that the new Iranian stealth fighter may be as genuine as the Islamic Republic’s concern for human rights. The regime unveiled the jet, 'Qaher 313', on Saturday, and the blogosphere immediately went to work debunking what could be one of the laziest forgeries of all time.
Closest Earth-like planet 'stroll across park'
February 7, 2013 8:40 am | by MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsEarth-like worlds may be closer and more plentiful than anyone imagined. Astronomers reported Wednesday that the nearest Earth-like planet may be just 13 light-years away - or some 77 trillion miles. That planet hasn't been found yet, but should be there based on the team's study of red dwarf stars.
32-channel discrete-to-digital sensing IC includes built-in lightning protection
February 6, 2013 2:26 pm | Holt Integrated Circuits | Product Releases | CommentsHolt Integrated Circuits today announced the introduction of HI-8435, a new 3.3V, 32-channel, discrete-to-digital sensing IC with SPI interface and built-in lightning protection. The sense input thresholds and hysteresis are programmable via the 20MHz SPI bus and all 32 sense output states may be read with a single SPI command.
Jay Leno test drives Army vehicle
February 6, 2013 12:29 pm | by Cherish Washington, AMC Public Affairs | News | CommentsJay Leno's garage is known for some of the most impressive vehicles in the world, and parked inside was the Army Materiel Command's Fuel Efficient Demonstrator here, Feb. 4. Gen. Dennis L. Via, commanding general of Army Materiel Command, and Grace Bochenek, AMC's chief technology officer, showcased the Fuel Efficient Demonstrator, or FED, on Leno's Internet car show called Jay Leno's Garage.
Blimps to bolster Washington's air shield in test
February 6, 2013 9:02 am | by Jim Wolf, Reuters | News | CommentsA pair of big, blimp-like craft, moored to the ground and flying as high as 10,000 feet, are to be added to a high-tech shield designed to protect the Washington D.C. area from air attack, at least for a while.The bulbous, helium-filled "aerostats" - each more than three quarters the length of a football field at 243 feet
